ENVIRONMENT – 27% of species facing extinction

The U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity warned Thursday of the “urgent action needed to save life on Earth” in response to a new global assessment revealing that nearly 27% of over 120,000 analyzed plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction.

“This assessment shows that one in four mammals are facing extinction, and although we don’t prefer to think of ourselves as animals, we humans are mammals,” Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at CBD, said. “We have to take bold and rapid action to reduce the huge damage we’re doing to the planet if we’re going to save whales, frogs, lemurs, and ultimately ourselves.”

“We know what we need to do to end extinction,” she added. “At this point it’s a matter of political will to rapidly move away from fossil fuels, stamp out the wildlife trade, and overhaul the toxic ways we produce food. We really can do all of these things, but we need world leaders to stand up and do them.”

Curry’s comments came after the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Thursday announced  an update to its, Red List of Threatened Species,  revealing that 32,441 assessed species are at risk.

“This IUCN Red List update exposes the true scale of threats faced by primates across Africa,” said IUCN acting director-general Grethel Aguilar. “It also shows that Homo sapiens needs to drastically change its relationship to other primates, and to nature as a whole.”

“At the heart of this crisis is a dire need for alternative, sustainable livelihoods to replace the current reliance on deforestation and unsustainable use of wildlife,” Aguilar continued. “These findings really bring home the urgent need for an ambitious post-2020 biodiversity framework that drives effective conservation action.”

WHALES
In a separate Center for Biological Diversity statement focusing on the whales found along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, legal director Kristen Monsell said that “entanglements and ship strikes are pushing these amazing animals to the brink of extinction.”